The Steelcleaver: New Beginnings
by Apartion
Summary: The story of Degraza Steelcleaver, the adopted daughter and heir of the old orc veteran Horthok Steelcleaver. Witness the journey of her inheritance after Horthok's death, and the trials she goes through while struggling to find her place in the world without her father's guidance.
1. Prologue: History

**_Degraza Darkore was born in the Hillsbrad Foothills to a Blackrock orc couple imprisoned in one of the internment camps there. She was still an infant when she and her parents were freed, and she grew up mostly in Kalimdor, residing in Orgrimmar with her parents since it was built. Her parents were very supportive of Garrosh Hellscream, and when he rallied orcs to his side in the conflict against the Darkspear Rebellion and the Alliance, her parents sided with him, eventually losing their lives in the process. Degraza, meanwhile, was left an orphan, taken in by the Orgrimmar orphanage, as she was still barely too young to be on her own._**

 ** _It was during her time in this orphanage that she met Horthok Steelcleaver, an old orc veteran who often came by the orphanage to visit the children and tell them stories from his past. Degraza grew close to Horthok, and eventually before the Legion's final invasion of Azeroth, he adopted her and made her his heir. Horthok was the last of his family's line - He had no current mate, his only one he had ever had murdered before they could have their child together._**

 ** _In the years following her adoption, Degraza learned much of Horthok's past. The tragedy that made him the last Steelcleaver, his struggles with continuing his life without the things he cherished most, and the battles he took part in. The Legion's final invasion was the last battle she heard him speak of when he briefly visited home from time to time after departing to fight off the demons one last time. She was still a teenager and was considered too young by Horthok to partake in the fight, and so she remained at her new home after he had departed, cherishing the brief days that he would return occasionally._**

 ** _After Argus appeared in the sky, Horthok joined Azeroth's forces in traveling there, yet just several months later he was forced to return home after falling victim to a horrific curse that had been placed on him in a battle against a powerful demon. Degraza took care of Horthok as he stayed bed-ridden at home in the weeks since he returned, but her caring for him was coming to a close, an end that was to be made reality in the dark of their home, three weeks after Horthok had come back._**


	2. Chapter 1: A New Journey

_Degraza woke up as she heard a loud yell inside her house. Briefly glancing outside, it had to have still been the middle of the night, so whatever was going on had to hold importance. The yell had been her adoptive father, Horthok's. She jumped up from her bed and rushed to his room._

 _Horthok had been bed-ridden for three weeks. He had been rushed home after serving on Argus for several months, after being cursed by a powerful demon he'd helped to slay. Several healers had tried to lift the curse, but nothing had worked thus far._

 _As Degraza entered Horthok's room, she first tended to lighting a candle near his bedside. She knelt down and looked at him._ _ **"Are you alright, father?"**_ _She asked. For Degraza, calling him father had come natural, regardless of her status as his adopted daughter._

 _Horthok reached out and weakly placed his hand on Degraza's shoulder._ _ **"I am glad that you woke up. I would not want you to find me in the morning without-"**_ _He began._

 _Quickly, though, Degraza interrupted him._ _ **"No - No, no, no. You're going to be okay, you have to be. Get some rest, father. Maybe in the morning you'll feel better."**_ _She said, trying to reason with him._

 _Horthok, however, knew better._ _ **"I will not be here in the morning. I can feel it... This is not how I pictured myself going, but... it is as my life has been. Uncontrollable, even strong as I have been."**_

 _Tears began to form in Degraza's eyes as she began to realize that Horthok was right. Over the three weeks he had been bed-ridden, he had gotten very thin, and his wrinkles had become far more prominent. She took his hand as he spoke, her face the picture of sadness._

 _ **"I don't want you to go, papa."**_ _She said, barely holding back sobbing._ _ **"I... I don't know how to fight properly yet, and... you're the only person I have for me here. I... I don't know what I'll do if you go."**_ _She told him._

 _Horthok's hand moved from Degraza's shoulder to her face, wiping away her tears._ _ **"I do not want to go, either. For so long, I wished for nothing but death... but raising you, even only for the few years you have been here, gave me new reason to live. But I cannot hold on any longer. This curse has claimed all of me but the fact that I am still living through it."**_ _He explained._

 _Degraza tried to find words to rebuke his statement, but she could not. No shaman, no priest, no monk had been able to fix his ailment, and there was no way anyone could reasonably survive much longer in the state Horthok was now in. Her attempts to hold back sobbing finally failed, and she buried her face in his chest, hugging him._

 _Horthok returned her hug with one arm, weakly petting her head with his other hand as she cried._ _ **"It will be alright. You are strong, stronger than I had been for quite some time in my life. Let me tell you something... listen closely."**_ _He began._

 _Degraza pulled herself away to look at him as he spoke. When he said things like this, a story usually followed; Horthok had many, and she paid very careful attention through tears and messy hair to listen to this one, as it was going to be his last._

 ** _"When I was just a few years older than you, my father had come back from a hunt injured. He had been impaled on the tusks of a massive boar, and when he returned, he neglected to see to his wounds. Eventually, they became infected, and my father's health failed rapidly... much like mine is now._**

 ** _I remember the morning he passed. The sun was barely beginning to come out, and the only hint that night was fading was the shade of the sky above. He called to me as I passed his room, and I knelt at his bedside, as you are doing now with me. He made it clear to me that he was not going to survive to see the sun's rising._**

 ** _He told me to remember who I was. He said that he was proud of me, and that I would be a far better man than he had been. I asked him how I could be better than him if he was not around to teach me how to be, and he told me that not once had he ever taught me to be strong, or taught me to be a good person._**

 ** _My father told me that those things were within me already, and that I did not need him to continue bringing them out. That is what I want you to know as well, Degraza. I could help you bring out your strength, but I am not where it comes from. It is in you, as is your ability to be more than what I was, and what I am now."_**

 _Degraza lowered her head as she listened and took in what Horthok said. She was unsure of it, but she had always considered her adoptive father wiser than she was, naturally so. She took his hand once more, and looked at him._ _ **"I love you, papa."**_ _She told him, unable to find any other words._

 _Horthok smiled weakly at Degraza's words, and gently squeezed her hand with what strength he could muster._ _ **"You are better than what I had imagined my child would've been like had he been born. You have brought me joy that I thought not possible for me any longer. You are the Steelcleaver now."**_ _He told her._

 _ **"What... what do I have to do?"**_ _She asked him. She was uncertain of where she would go without his guidance, and if she had only moments with him left, she wanted his help one last time._

 _Shaking his head, Horthok kept his eyes on her._ _ **"I cannot tell you where you must go or what you must do in your life. That is up to you. But... when I am gone, bury my body next to my father's. When I am gone, all that I had will be yours."** He explained, his eyes closing. **"I have had many journeys in my lifetime. I have heard that death is not the end of a great journey, but the start of another one. I think I'd like one more journey..."**_ _He said, his voice quieting as his words trailed off._

 _Degraza shook his hand gently after several moments of silence. She continued doing so until she realized that he was no longer breathing. It was far from the death in battle she had heard of so many orcs having, but this was far more meaningful, in her opinion, than being struck down._

 _She stayed by his bedside crying for several more hours, before finally leaving the house briefly to find the right person to reveal his passing to. In the coming days, his funeral was prepared, and she watched his body be laid to rest alongside his father's in Outland, comforted by friends of his that came to attend._

 _As he was buried, she questioned to herself how she was going to amount to anything without Horthok's guidance, but remembered his words. She had the strength to move forward within her, and she owed it to her father to carry on what he had started in bringing that out of her. Horthok Steelcleaver may have now been dead, but his legacy was far from over._


End file.
